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how to juggle solids, breastfeeding and naps?

So i know that you're supposed to nurse and then give solids an hour later so that breastmilk is the primary food. However, it doesn't work too well with when she generally naps and I end up either feeding her almost right after nursing or sometimes delaying her nursing at night. (ie. I used to nurse her at 4:30pm then again at 5:30pm for bedtime because she loves to nurse as her wind down routine but now I give her solids instead of the 4:30pm nursing.) And I am only feeding her twice a day so far. She is almost 7.5 months old and at her 6 month check up was 14lbs8oz.

How does everyone else do it? I don't do jarred foods but I'm not doing BLW either. I just mash up or grate her food and feed her with a spoon and stop when she shows disinterest.

Here's kind of how our day goes:
wake up: anytime between 6:30 and 7:30am
nurse about 30 minutes after waking
first nap: about 1.5-2 hours after wake up (tends to be around 9am)
nurse around 10 or 10:30am depending on length of nap
1/2 a medium banana at 11am
second nap: between 11:30 and 12pm
nurse around 1:30pm depending on length of nap (used to be an hour and a half to 2 hours but lately been only doing 45 min)
third nap: around 2:30pm (unless second nap lasted 2 hours then skip this)
1/4-1/2 cup of a vegetable (usually carrots with a bit of apple, tried avocado yesterday) around 4pm
bath around 5pm
nurse before bed around 5:30pm
in bed and sleeping by 6:30pm

Does anybody else have a better routine or can make suggestions to improve mine? Am I doing it wrong? Am I giving her enough to eat?

Re: how to juggle solids, breastfeeding and naps?

Almost7.5 months, sorry forgot to mention but i edited the post to add that. She nurse 4 or 5 times a day and used to wake up in the middle of the night to nurse but hadn't in 2 nights so who knows. She did that at 5 months then went back to waking up

Re: how to juggle solids, breastfeeding and naps?

Thanks for adding that detail! Okay, since she's so young, I would not worry about the amount of solids she's eating. It's more than enough for her at this age. At this point, a baby is perfectly capable of getting all her nutritional needs met by breastmilk (or formula) alone, and it's preferable that she do so, since breastmilk is the perfect food, and it's impossible to replicate the perfect balance of nutrients, not to mention immunities, using solids.

Although I wouldn't be concerned about the amount of solids she's eating, I would be a little concerned about her milk intake. Most babies require about 8 nursing sessions per day in order to get the majority of their calories from breastmilk, and your baby is giving you just 4-5. At this point, I would proactively add some nursing opportunities into your day. Maybe right before naps, right after you wake up- and once in the night. Maybe wake her for a "dreamfeed" right before you go to bed. even if she's barely awake, she may still take in plenty of milk.

Re: how to juggle solids, breastfeeding and naps?

Are you sure she needs that many nursings?? The last time she ate that often was when she was 2 months old. I only nurse her when she wants to. I wouldn't want to overfeed her with nursing because we had that situation when she was very little causing her to vomit all the time and having nothing but green poop. Once we started doing these 4-5 nursings a day (plus the middle of the night nursing) her poop went back to normal. She also doesn't spit up as often anymore. She tends to nurse for about 30 min most of which is just playing around towards the end.

Re: how to juggle solids, breastfeeding and naps?

No, I'm not sure of anything!

There are certainly some babies who get all the milk they need in a fewer than average number of feedings. But babies like that are rare. The average baby will nurse at least 8 times a day and many will nurse far more than that. This is one of those situations where the proof is in the pudding. If your baby is thriving (i.e. growing and developing normally) on just a few feedings per day, and is being fed on demand, then everything is okay and you probably don't have to change anything- though increasing the number of nursing sessions per day cannot hurt, and may help! But if the baby isn't gaining weight the way she should, or seems unhappy, then the number of nursing sessions needs to be increased.

Just FTR, you cannot overfeed a breastfed baby, because YOU are not in charge of the feeding. The baby is. If she is hungry, she will nurse eagerly and stimulate a rapid flow of milk. If she's not hungry, she will simply unlatch herself and end the feeding, or she will suckle lazily, which will cause the milk flow to decrease to a trickle or stop altogether. This is totally different from the way bottle-fed babies eat. It's easy to overfeed a bottle-fed baby because the adult can- and often does- hold the bottle in the baby's mouth even when the baby isn't that interested in eating, and because the bottle generates the same rapid flow of fluid regardless of whether the baby is sucking eagerly for food, or lazily for comfort. And if the baby doesn't swallow, she will choke.

Spit-up can be expected to decrease during the baby's first year simply due to the baby sitting up more and having better tone in the muscle sphincters which hold stomach contents down where they belong. Spit-up occurs more because babies have tiny tummies and weak sphincters than because of overeating- which, again, breastfed babies don't do.

Re: how to juggle solids, breastfeeding and naps?

Originally Posted by @llli*jadedfrrog

Are you sure she needs that many nursings?? The last time she ate that often was when she was 2 months old. I only nurse her when she wants to. I wouldn't want to overfeed her with nursing because we had that situation when she was very little causing her to vomit all the time and having nothing but green poop. Once we started doing these 4-5 nursings a day (plus the middle of the night nursing) her poop went back to normal. She also doesn't spit up as often anymore. She tends to nurse for about 30 min most of which is just playing around towards the end.

Ok, my son was always spitting up and even throwing up until about 4 months: I have low supply and I was probably overfeeding him with a formula supplement via sns... I researched the reflux like symptoms and then started nursing in more upright positions instead of across my body: he is almost 7 months old and between positioning better and his age the vomit and spit-up is super rare and since he was 5 months, I have only supplemented him with donated breastmilk. I currently feed him about 9 times a day....an early morning feeding 4-6 am ( we cosleep after his midnight-2am feeding) a 9 am-ish feeding, a 11 am feeding, a 1:30 ish feeding, 3-4 pm feeding, 5-6 pm feeding a 8-9 pm feeding and a midnight feeding and often I 'll throw in some quick nursing to send him off to sleep before a nap or if he has gas throughout the night. I just started trying out solids in the last 2 weeks, he isn't too excited about eating but he likes tasting now... I'm not too concerned that he isn't getting enough solids since they aren't as important as all the breastmilk.
I would up the breastmilk if I were you since its so good for your baby. Don't be concerned that she finishes quickly or more quickly than she used to, she could just be more efficient now or possibly your supply could be less due to fewer feedings...I agree with the other moms that it may be time to reacess solids and feedings. Hope things work out well...